Gary Cummings, 46, Journalist And Professor

(Channel 2) and an Emmy award-winning broadcaster, died Saturday in University of Illinois Hospital. He was 46.

Mr. Cummings, who at the time of his death was chairman of the broadcast news program at Northwestern University`s Medill School of Journalism, died of complications resulting from melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

One of the most successful journalists ever to make the jump from newspapers to television, Mr. Cummings worked his way up through the ranks at CBS to become boss of the network-owned station in Chicago, a job he held from February, 1984, until resigning in March, 1986.

Along the way, as editorial director both at WBBM and at WCBS-TV in New York, he won a number of professional awards for his on-the-air editorials, including Emmys in 1974, 1980, and 1981; a Peter Lisagor Award in 1976; and a Gavel Award from the American Bar Association in 1980.

A graduate of Northwestern, where he majored in journalism and English literature, Mr. Cummings began his news career with United Press International in his native New Hampshire. He joined Chicago`s American in 1965 as a reporter and rewrite man.

Mr. Cummings subsequently served the newspaper, which later became known as Chicago Today, as an investigative reporter and assistant political editor before being named first assistant city editor in 1970.

In 1972 Mr. Cummings switched to broadcasting, taking a job as assignment editor at WBBM-TV. He was then named the station`s editorial director, serving in that capacity and as assistant news director before going to WCBS-TV in New York in 1981.

It was in New York that Mr. Cummings began moving quickly up the corporate ladder. He was named vice president of the CBS Television Stations Division in 1982 and two years later was offered the job as general manager of the Chicago network outlet.

But Mr. Cummings` tenure as station chief was sometimes stormy. Though in his first year, WBBM-TV`s ratings soared to an all-time high and the station walked off with many of the local Emmys, he ran afoul of some segments of the black community the next year when CBS decided to relieve veteran anchorman Harry Porterfield of his anchor duties to make room for Bill Kurtis, who was returning to Chicago from New York.

Many industry insiders believe that Mr. Cummings was made to take the blame for the resulting Operation PUSH boycott against WBBM.

He is survived by his wife, television and movie critic Johanna Steinmetz; two sons, Ian and Pearson; his mother, Mrs. Althea Cummings, of Peterborough, N.H.; and a sister, Mrs. Diane Hill.

Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Alice Millar Chapel of Northwestern University, 1870 Sheridan Rd., Evanston.